Recessions scar. Years of slump, flatlining and wage-increase-free recovery have bequeathed a sense of unease. Industrial orders are growing but so is the number of food banks. House prices are on the rise, but so is the number of workers on zero-hours contracts. Welfare reforms mean that more and more people are having their benefits docked. Welcome to Britain in the age of insecurity.

None of the major parties are much loved. Labour is blamed for the recession; the Conservatives have yet to reap any reward for the return of growth. Government and opposition are suffering a backlash from a squeeze on living standards unprecedented in Britain's postwar history. Between them, Labour and the Conservatives could barely scrape together votes from 50% of those who bothered to turn out in the European elections. Ukip, the Greens and the stay-at-home party were the three big winners.

Theme number one is that modern Britain can be divided into a comfortably off third at the top; a middle third one pay cheque away from financial trouble; and a third at the bottom struggling – and often failing – to make ends meet. Not everybody feels insecure. Some parts of the country are doing fine. London is humming because that's where a good chunk of the comfortably off third live. But elsewhere the recovery is much patchier: the house price bubble of Mayfair, Belgravia and the smart London suburbs may as well be on a different planet. The mood is summed up by a man on the Lockleaze estate, a working-class area a couple of miles north of Bristol city centre. "It might be happening in London," he says, "but it isn't happening here."

Private gardens in Belgravia, London, in the middle of a house price bubble. Photograph: Guy Somerset/Alamy

Theme number two is that the recession accelerated a structural shift in the UK labour market. Even before the crisis, workers were struggling to get pay increases much above the inflation rate. In the downturn, they accepted pay cuts and wage freezes as the price of keeping their jobs. But they are not happy about it. One factory worker in St Austell, Cornwall, says: "You can't earn enough to buy a home in your own town."

Poverty is no longer something that happens to the unemployed. It is also something that happens to those moving in and out of low-paid jobs and even those in full-time employment. Food banks, like the one run by the Trussell Trust in south Glasgow, have sprung up everywhere. Norma Smart, in charge of the food bank, says: "When I started out I didn't know what poverty was. All sorts of people come in here – ordinary people, unfortunate people."

Guy Standing, of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, says Britain is developing a "precariat", a group without secure jobs, occupational identity or any hope of building a career. Politicians, he says, need to find a language to capture the "angst and anomie". It is not just the angst and anomie politicians need to worry about, according to Ann Lynch, a community activist in Glasgow. "There comes a moment when people's emotions turn to anger. Because they are treated disgracefully. Because of the cuts. Because there are no job opportunities."

The third theme is how tough life is for the young. Paul Gregg, professor of economic and social policy at Bath University, says that for the average worker, pay adjusted for inflation is down 8% on pre-recession levels; for those under 25, it has fallen by 15% and is now no higher than it was in 1997 when Tony Blair came to power.

The paradox, Gregg says, is that the young have been the real victims of the crash and its aftermath, but they are much less likely to vote for Ukip than elderly people, who have done much better. On the train out of Birmingham, three pensioners (two of them Guardian readers) talk about how they are on their way from Leicester to Manchester to see the Last Days of Troy at the Royal Exchange theatre. On the other side of the aisle, a 20-year-old accompanied by his girlfriend and two dogs is off to Stoke to look for a labouring job.

Julia Darby, economics professor at the University of Strathclyde, says graduates are doing work that was previously done by school-leavers. "People are churning into jobs and out again," she says.

Theme number four is the impact of benefit changes. A man in Somerset says he was searching for work seven days a week but was left without food or electricity over Christmas when his benefits were suspended because he was not deemed to be doing enough to find a job. Later, he was sent on mandatory work activity for four weeks, rubbing shoulders with offenders on community sentences. He didn't see this as a helping hand back into the labour market.

Danny MacCafferty, chair of the Independent Resource Centre in Clydebank, is scathing about the new tests designed to show whether disabled people are fit enough to look for a job. "The current system is that if you have a pulse you can work."

The fifth theme is the patchy nature of the recovery. Those parts of Britain that have diversified local economies and good and quick travel links to London, such as Bristol, are doing better than low-wage Cornwall, where even big tourist attractions such as the Eden Project are only just emerging from a difficult period that saw 68 people lose their jobs and a further 50 posts left unfilled. Dave Harland, one of the Eden Project's executives, says: "Our numbers are slightly up. People are spending marginally more than they were, but we are not seeing huge growth in traffic. We had a very difficult year coming out of 2012."

Harland says the rising cost of living has made life tough for his staff. After three years of frozen wages, the minimum is being put up to £6.80, with a pledge that the living wage will be paid when business is good enough. There are 100 people on zero-hours contracts, although Harland says they are mostly voluntary.

Biomes at the Eden Project. Even this big attraction was not safe from the downturn and is only just emerging from a difficult period tha saw job cuts. Photograph: Alamy

Finally, it is clear that some parts of the country are suffering from the impact of not one but multiple recessions. Stoke-on-Trent is a case in point. Everywhere there is evidence of industrial hollowing out, but there are jobs to be had. Matthew Rice, managing director of pottery firm Emma Bridgewater, says: "Business is good. It is growing." Staff are being taken on and they are not on zero-hours contracts, because temporary workers are unsuitable for skilled work. But full recovery is a long way off. "As far as Stoke is concerned the latest recession has not had that much of an impact because it had already been so trashed over the last 30 years," Rice says.

Factory demolitions in Britain's industrial heartland provided the abiding image of the recession of the early 1980s. This time, the backdrop may prove to be either the food bank or the high-street shops where nothing costs more than a quid. In that respect, Clydebank will remain as one with Stoke, Bristol and Cornwall whatever happens in the independence vote. All part of Poundland.